This afternoon our prayer thought is found on pages 149, 150 of The Mount of Blessing. Weshall read the first four paragraphs. These are based on the scripture, "Be not therefore anxiousfor the morrow...sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

M.B., pp. 149, 150 -- "If you have given yourself to God, to do His work, you have no need tobe anxious for tomorrow.... When we take into our hands the management of things with whichwe have to do, and depend upon our own wisdom for success, we are taking a burden which Godhas not given us.... We may well have anxiety, and anticipate danger and loss; for it is certain tobefall us. But when we really believe that God loves us, and means to do us good, we shall ceaseto worry about the future. We shall trust God as a child trusts a loving parent. Then our troublesand torments will disappear; for our will is swallowed up in the will of God.

"Christ has given us no promise of help in bearing to-day the burdens of to-morrow.... One dayalone is ours, and during this day we are to live for God. For this one day we are to place in thehand of Christ, in solemn service, all our purposes and plans, casting all our care upon Him, forHe careth for us. 'I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace,and not of evil, to give you an expected end.' '...in quietness and in confidence shall be yourstrength.' "

Let us pray for an abiding realization that God has promised help in bearing our burdens, not oftomorrow, but of today; pray that we each day place in His hands all our purposes and plans, allour cares and anxieties. Then only can we rest in the assurance that in "quietness and inconfidence" shall be our strength.

Several of you have come to me lately with some questions apparently very important to you. For this reason we shall devote the study hour this afternoon to answering them.

I shall now read the question: "Are we, Brother Houteff, less worthy to ordain among us

The Lord's Supper?"

Let us see. Just before instituting the ordinance of humility, Jesus said to His disciples, "Ye areclean, but not all." One was not. In spite of the fact that Judas was unworthy, the ordinancecould not longer have been put off. Albeit as soon as he had partaken of the sacrament, he arose,went out, and did his devilish work. Afterward his eyes were opened to the crime he hadcommitted, and he hanged himself. The other disciples, though, were as ready, or as worthy forthe sacred service as they could have been up to that time.

The Lord's Supper was ordained in remembrance of the Lord's sacrifice, not to cleanse thepartakers of it from their sins but to cleanse them from sinners, as is seen from the Passover inEgypt and from the fact that thereafter Judas no longer walked with

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 3

the disciples. Plainly, then, the celebration of the ordinance brought blessing to the eleven, butdamnation to the one.

There have been a number of reform movements among us before and in our time. Of course,they all ordained the Lord's Supper in their midst. But it did not profit them. It did not makethem or their work lasting and eternal. As a matter of fact, they went out of existence even fasterthan they came in. Now let us read from --

1 Cor. 11:17, 18 -- "Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come togethernot for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hearthat there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it."

The Corinthians were having controversies, causing divisions among themselves, and so theirgetting together in church was "not for the better," but for the worse.

If we meet together only for the "worse," is it not far better to stay at home?

1 Cor. 11:27-30 -- "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord,unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, andso let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily,eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many areweak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

The Lord's bread and cup are to be taken by a people only after they have examined themselves,and

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 4

have seen to it that they are not causing trouble; that their meeting together is for the better, notfor the "worse." Now, if we have reached that standard of righteousness, then we should by allmeans ordain the Lord's Supper among us. But if we have not come to that point as yet, then ourinstituting the ordinance of humility among ourselves would only be to our own damnation, not toour salvation.

Our chief duty right now is not to urge the observance of the Lord's Supper, but rather first tocome up to the standard of perfection which the message of today, along with the message ofyesterday urges. The Lord never calls for "revival and reformation" when the church is enjoyinggood spiritual life. The Lord's Supper, therefore, is never to be ordained at the beginning of sucha revival and reformation, but at its completion. Jesus did not institute the ordinance at thebeginning of His ministry, but did so at its close.

And if we would avoid causing divisions among ourselves, we should never discuss the sins ofothers, nor pass judgment on them. If we cannot right the matter privately with the ones at fault,then we had better either discuss it with no one or else follow the instruction given in

Matt. 18:16, 17 -- "But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in themouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hearthem, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as anheathen man and a publican."

We cannot lead the Lord. He is to lead us. We of ourselves never know what is right and whatis wrong

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 5

unless we are told. Easy enough, if we do whatever we are told to do, no more and no less, weshall be accounted worthy. So far, our God-sent message has not brought to our attention theordination of the Lord's Supper, but it is pleading with us to depart from the abominations, to castaside all our idols, to put away all our private ideas and opinions, to wholeheartedly return to theLord.

The message, moreover, teaches that we should remain in the mother church and work strictlyfor her salvation. The conclusion then is that as long as we stay with her, there seems to be noneed for ordaining the Lord's Supper privately among ourselves, perhaps not before the hourcomes for the penitent to be separated from the impenitent, as taught by the types-by the Passoverin Egypt, and by the Passover on the night when Judas was to go out, never again to walk withthe twelve.

Furthermore, no one seems to know when and how to observe the sacrament. Some observe itevery Sunday or every Sabbath, some occasionally, some every quarter and so on. It seemslogical to say that when God commands us to ordain it anew He will tell us also how and when toobserve it properly.

----------0-0-0----------

Several have said to me, "Brother Houteff, when we meet those who oppose us, we do notknow how to answer their questions. We become confused. We do not know whether we areright or whether we are wrong. They mainly confuse us on the 'Rod's' interpretation of the

Trumpets And The Seals."

Those of you who are having to answer controverted questions, just say to your opponents:One of us is wrong for sure. We cannot both be right, to say the

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 6

least, and so let us carefully and impartially look into the subject.

I would tell them that we teach the Trumpets just as John saw them in vision. For example, TheRevelation says, "And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousandthousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them thatsat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horseswere as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By thesethree was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, whichissued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails werelike unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt." Rev. 9:16-19.

This is the descriptive picture which the Revelator gives us of the 200,000,000, horses andhorsemen. The following objectification is as close to John's description of the horses andhorsemen as we can make it, and our interpretation of them is accordingly. See Tract No. 5,"Final Warning."

PICTURE

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 7

Here follows the objectification of the horses and horsemen which the General Conference putsout to the public.

PICTURE

Now compare Inspiration's own description of the horses and horsemen with theDenomination's illustration of them as given in "Thoughts on Daniel and The Revelation," p. 510. Why can not the Denomination in their exposition of the Trumpets use Inspiration's owndescription of the horses and horsemen? Why did they have to devise one of their own? -- Theonly answer that can be given is that the Spirit's Own description does not fit their uninspiredinterpretations. One's inability to interpret correctly, without Heaven's gift of interpretation,however, is expected and is excusable. But to say that the vision was shown to the Revelator atso great a distance, that he was unable accurately to see the kinds of heads and tails the horseshad and where the fire, smoke, and brimstone came from, in order to tailor the vision to accordwith their interpretation of it, is not only defiance against Christ's warning concerning adding toand subtracting from the Scriptures (Rev. 22:18, 19), but it is also outright blasphemy.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 8

Do you now see what the men whom they call great, "men of experience," are doing? Theseunscrupulous deeds condemn their boast that saintly men are running the Denomination; and theirboastingly speaking of the millions of dollars the Denomination annually gathers from the poor isanything but saintly if it has to be spent for such kind of work. They need to repent and correctthe errors which they are passing as Truth before they can conscientiously accuse others.

If John could not see exactly what the horses looked like, then how could he see that all the fishin the sea died (Rev. 8:9)? And with such a self-exalting precedent for studying the Scriptures asthe kind the General Conference has set up, how can anyone be sure that any of the prophets sawanything right? Do you not realize that such foolish and twisted interpretations of the Scripturesare Satanic attempts to undermine men's confidence in the prophets and of Christ's ability tocorrectly reveal and portray Truth to His servants? Consider how damaging the charge againstInspiration, how soul-destroying, and blasphemous against the Holy Ghost Who leads into allTruth! and how repulsive it must be to Christ, especially for coming from those who pretend toserve Him! This alone ought to be sufficient to show that the angel (ministry) of the Laodiceansis blind and naked and in need of everything. For the sake of your life and for the lives of others,do not support such doctrines of devils. They are anything but Truth, anything but signs of theSpirit of Prophecy at work. Ask yourselves when Turkey or any other nation ever had200,000,000 cavalrymen! And if you still wonder why God permitted the errors to creep into thechurch, the answer is: So that by their fostering and propagating them He may at a time such asthis expose the workers of iniquity and prove to the laity that His

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 9

church is now as badly overrun by the Devil as was the Jewish church at Christ's time, thus toawaken the honest ones and to set them free from their Laodicean self-deception, and thus fromthe overflowing scourge (Isa. 28:13-15).

Do you not now see the reason for the name "Blasphemy" over all seven heads of theleopard-like beast (Rev. 13)? And that if one head symbolizes a religious system, then they allmust do the same, for they are all alike save for the wound on one of them, and all are on thebeast (world) at the same time, not one after another.

As for their charge that the "Rod" teaches that the church is Babylon, we challenge them toproduce the statement. And if they do not know what Babylon is, then they better read "TheShepherd's Rod."

True, the church is God's church, but those who have taken charge of it are no better than theSanhedrin in Christ's day. It is because God has supreme regard for His church that He has thuswith His Truth invaded it, and is thus to reclaim His people by cutting down those who areunlawfully enslaving them, teaching them doctrines of devils as shown in this study; and keepingthem from coming in contact with Heaven's Truth for this time of crisis. Do you see why theGeneral Conference is now no more the Voice of God to the people (General ConferenceBulletin, 34th session, Vol. 4, Extra No. 1, April 3, 1901, pg. 25, Cols. 1, 2) than was theSanhedrin's to the Jews in Christ's time? I hope you will no longer deceive yourselves that "TheShepherd's Rod" is tearing down anything that God has built up. Now

The Seven Seals

The Laodiceans teach that the seals begin with the

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 10

resurrection of Christ, which, as you know, was about seventy years before John the Revelatorhad the vision of the seals. Let us now hear what the Voice of the Revelation Itself says:

Rev. 4:1 -- "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voicewhich I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I willshew thee things which must be hereafter."

The Voice spoke emphatically that the things which John was about to be shown had not takenplace, and were not then taking place, but that they were to take place later in the stream of time. Since they were to take place after John had the vision (after 96 A.D., not in the first century ofthe Christian era), then is it not blasphemy to teach contrary to what the Voice said -- to say thatthe seals began over three decades before shown to John? No, the seals cannot, therefore, beginwith the Christian church. To find out the Truth of them, read Tract No. 15, "To the SevenChurches."

----------0-0-0----------

"What About Revelation Twelve?"

"Does the woman clothed with the sun symbolize the church from the Pentecost on, clothedwith the Gospel (sun) of Christ?"

When the dragon attacked the woman, she was already clothed with the sun, and her child, theLord, was not yet born. This being so, how can her sun clothing be symbolical of her beingclothed with the gospel of Christ and how could she have been a representation of the Christianchurch, seeing that neither the gospel nor the church were then in existence. And how can she beChrist's mother before the Christian church herself is born? She cannot is the overall

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 11

answer.

The theory, then, that the woman takes her beginning at the Pentecost, is about as logical as it isto say that the chicken is hatched before the egg is laid.

----------0-0-0----------

"Is the slaughter of Ezekiel 9 to take place in the world or in the church? Is it the seven lastplagues, or is it

The Purification Of The Church?"

Ezek. 9:1, 4, 9 -- "He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that havecharge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. Andthe Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and seta mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be donein the midst thereof. Then said He unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah isexceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, TheLord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not."

The angels have charge of the "city," Jerusalem, not of the world, and not of Babylon. Even analtogether uninformed Christian knows that the terms Jerusalem, Judah, and Israel, mean thechurch, never even as much as imply the "world." They have always meant the church and alwayswill mean the church, for that is what they are.

The slaughter of Ezekiel 9 is positively not the same as the seven last plagues (Rev. 16),because the plagues fall on Babylon, but the slaughter, on Judah and Jerusalem. Moreover, theangels of Ezekiel 9

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 12

slay every one who does not have the mark, but the plagues do not slay anyone. By wrestingMoses' writings, the Jews tried to refute Christ's teachings and it is certain that if the Laodiceanscontinue to wrest Sister White's writings in trying to refute the message for today, then their endshall be even more mournful than was the Jews'. Concerning what she says about Ezekiel 9 readTestimonies, Vol. 3, pg. 267; Id., Vol. 5, pg. 211; also The Great Controversy, pp. 656, 657. Ezekiel nine pictures the Judgment of the Living in the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17) -- the sealingof the saints and the destruction of the wicked in the church.

-----------0-0-0----------

I think I have time for another question: This question is asked in five parts, and so I shallanswer it accordingly.

Question 1: "Does the prophecy of Nahum predict World War II or Some Other War?"

Nahum predicts that the one who starts the war, "he that dasheth in pieces," will have been wellprepared before he starts the war, but his opposing power, Assyria, will not have been prepareduntil after the war begins; that is, after the one who "dasheth in pieces" comes before Assyria'sface, then it is that Assyria makes preparation to meet him. Then it is that she makes her loinsstrong, and fortifies her "power mightily."

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 13

Now, since it is a known fact that Great Britain and France were not prepared to fight Hitlerwhen he opened up his guns against them, and as everyone of the Allies began to preparethemselves mightily after Hitler started to dash in pieces, the truth stands out as clear as crystalthat "he who dasheth in pieces" is none other than Hitler, the one that was ready at thecommencement of the war, the one who broke in several pieces Germany itself, the British empireand many other countries. The Allies, therefore, must be the antitypical Assyria. This is cluenumber one.

For clue number two we shall read about the means of travel and transportation in the day thatthe war preparations are made and the war itself fought.

Nah. 2:3, 4 -- "...the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation,... Thechariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shallseem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings."

These verses portray the means of travel and transportation in the day the war preparations aremade and the war fought. Since World War II is the only war in history for which thepreparations described by Nahum were made and used while the "chariots" (vehicular traffic)move with unprecedented speed, "lightning-like" speed, while motor traffic in air and sea, in cityand countryside (streets and broadways), "justled one against another." All these signs of thetime, mark the time the war is fought, they leave no room for doubts. They all in perfect termscertify that Nahum predicts World War II. For a third clue we shall read

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 14

Nah. 1:15 -- "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, thatpublisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall nomore pass through thee; he is utterly cut off."

Here we are told that at the time the war is fought someone is to be publishing inspiredrevelations of newly revealed Truth, the Truth of the Judgment of the Living, the which is toforever separate the wheat from the tares (Matt. 13:30), the good fish from the bad (Matt. 13:47,48), the sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:32), and the wise virgins from the foolish ones (Matt.25:1-12). These shall "no more pass through" the church, declares the scripture, they are "utterlycut off." Thus urging Judah, the church, to keep this antitypical atonement feast and to performher vows to God so as to be found worthy of escaping the judgments of God. Hence God's pleato His church is now ringing throughout the land, saying, "Awake, awake: put on thy strength, OZion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no morecome into thee the uncircumcised and unclean." (Isa. 52:1)

With these positive signs of the times Inspiration lets each individual decide for himself whetherto put confidence in the Voice which Inspiration Itself recommends, or in a voice whichuninspired human beings recommend. Henceforth there is to be no confusion among God's truepeople. His "...watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for theyshall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion." (Isa. 52:8.)

----------0-0-0----------

Question 2: "Who does Nahum say will win the war -- 'he that dasheth in pieces' or 'Assyria'?"

Although Nahum's prophecy places the greater

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 15

emphasis on the fall of Assyria, it nevertheless declares that they both will lose out, for speakingof him that "dasheth in pieces," the scripture says:

Nah. 2:5 -- "He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make hasteto the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared."

To "recount his worthies" implies that the number of worthies -- captains and generals and othermighty men along with his fine army -- is diminishing and hence the need of recounting, and that"his worthies" are to stumble in their walk; that is they are to make some kind of a blunder ontheir march to victory and cause them to fall. And this is exactly what happened: Hitler's armystumbled by waging war against Russia while he was in war with Great Britain. That criticalmoment of his career was Hitler's greatest folly. England was just about to give up, but theGerman army pulled away and went to fight Russia! And, too, the fall of his worthies beingmentioned before the fall of Assyria is mentioned, the prophecy thus reveals that "he that dashethin pieces," Hitler, was to fall first.

----------0-0-0----------

Question 3: "Why is Hitler's title 'he that dasheth in pieces'?"

Well, that is all Hitler did. He began to dash in pieces from the very inception of the war, --none were able to stand against him, and even after he disappeared, and Germany surrendered, thebreaking in pieces continued and as yet has not stopped. As a result the whole world is broken inpieces, not only geographically, but politically and socially and economically as well. The EnglishEmpire is still tottering, and the ominous "squeaks" are becoming louder and louder with eachpassing day. Hitler, therefore, deserves the title ("dasheth in pieces")

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3 16

in more than one way.

----------0-0-0----------

Question 4: "Does not Nahum's prophecy teach that Assyria is to fall completely?"

Yes, that is just what we understand it to teach. Very evidently, then, Nahum's prophecyforewarns that World War II is not as yet completed. The world itself knows that it is not, andthat the Allies, save Russia, won nothing, that they would have been better off to have given toHitler part of Poland than to fight the war and then to lose out to Russia not only a part but wholeof Poland and with it whole Eastern Europe. Moreover, Russia has now become their greaterenemy than was Hitler. They did away with Hitler, but the hot war never completely ceased, andthe cold war was soon added to it. Everyone knows that the war is not settled, and that peace hasnot come, that the war may break out red hot any day.

----------0-0-0----------

Question 5: "What do your tracts teach concerning the war?" --

The tracts do not say as much. They do not say definitely who "he that dasheth in pieces" is,nor do they say for certain that World War II is Nahum's war. And while Tract No. 14, WarNews Forecast, does say that the army of him who dasheth in pieces, "too nevertheless shall fall,"it does not say for sure whose army will fall first. (See Tract No. 14, pg. 12, -- comments onNahum 2:5.)